Talk of a ‘new type of partnership’ was overblown, but Beijing pledged $20 bn. and took first steps toward improving corporate and environmental regulations

With a crucial leadership handover at the end of the year and growing domestic economic concerns, Beijing hosted the Fifth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on 19-20 July with the usual dash of multibillion-dollar promises. Foreign and finance ministers from more than 50 African countries attended, but only a handful of heads of state and government were present, notably South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Dramane Ouattara and Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga. However, FOCAC V won a different sort of feather in its cap in the presence of the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.

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